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Kat Long

@katlong.bsky.social
415 followers 507 following 307 posts

Freelance science journalist, 19th-century Arctic enthusiast, biographer of polar explorer William Scoresby, Jr. Uncover fascinating stories in the history of Arctic science and exploration in my newsletter Arctic Archives: katlong.substack.com

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 15h
Frederic Edwin Church was one of the most famous American artists in the 19th century. He showed off his huge landscape paintings in theatrical frames, complete with curtains. Each gallery show was a media event. So how did "The Icebergs" go missing?
smithsonianmag.com
'The Icebergs' Is One of Frederic Edwin Church's Most Spectacular Paintings. For Decades, No One Knew Where It Was
In the 1970s, the administrator of a boys' home in England wound up finding the missing 19th-century piece and bringing it back into the spotlight
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I love the MLB Postseason but if I have to listen to Bob Costas’ Old-Timey Sports Poetry™️ for the next month I’m not going to be responsible for my actions
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If this list doesn’t include The Terror how credible can it really be
nytimes.com
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A brief biography of my great-great-great-great uncle and his second career—after his first career as an Arctic explorer 🤩👇
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item:
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Interesting #Whitby-related thread about my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather!
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Excellent news ! 🧊❄️
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Philip Hoare @philiphoare.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
'Icebergs and Aurora Borealis in the Arctic Regions' watercolour by Charles Hamilton Smith c.1840s Yale Center for British Art
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Eddie Jenkins 🦤 @eddiejenks510.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I've written an article on the history and future Whitby's soon-to-be-removed whale bone arch! And before you ask, yes I managed to mention William Scoresby Junior (rude not to) whitbymuseum.org.uk/whitbys-whal... #whaling #polarexploration #animals #history #Nature #Arctic
A modern Whalebone arch, standing on Whitby's West CliffA whalebone arch standing in Pannett Park Whitby. The arch and surrounding park is covered in snowA shed in Whitby made of whaleboneAn illustration of a whale flipping a small boat
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I hate this
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William Colgan @glacierbytes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Calling themselves ‘Greenland Energy’ is simply Greenland-washing old fashioned Texas-based oil-and-gas exploration. Greenland — and the world — deserves better than US neo-imperialism. A ‘frontier mentality’ for resource extraction challenges our rule of law.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
ICYMI: Spend your Monday submersed in the story of P.T. Barnum and his beguiling belugas 🐋
katlong.substack.com
Barnum’s Belugas: How Arctic Whales Ended Up on Broadway
The white whales brought a piece of the Arctic to American aquariums in the 19th century—thanks in part to P.T. Barnum. Plus: Polar Intelligence.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Recently, I read about a rescue of 30 beluga #whales from a closed marine park in Canada and their transfer to new U.S. facilities. That got me thinking — when and how did the #Arctic whales become so popular in aquariums? I dove into the #history in this issue of my newsletter, Arctic Archives 👇
katlong.substack.com
Barnum’s Belugas: How Arctic Whales Ended Up on Broadway
The white whales brought a piece of the Arctic to American aquariums in the 19th century—thanks in part to P.T. Barnum. Plus: Polar Intelligence.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The flag says “Mardelva” but there are more potential options Marvadel Vamardel Vadelmar Delvamar
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
New from me: Climate change is eating away at Svalbard's largest whalers' graveyard, threatening bones and textiles preserved in the 17th-century burials as well as the scientific data embedded in them 🧪⚱️❄️
nationalgeographic.com
Thawing permafrost is threatening Svalbard's 'corpse point'
Human bones and artifacts from the largest whalers’ graveyard in the archipelago are at risk of disintegrating.
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Dr. Michelle I. Turner @chaco-arch.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The regulations that give teeth to the National Historic Preservation Act are about to get wiped out. "Section 106" is what requires pipelines and roads to get checked for impact on archaeology. It's also the basis for federal consultation with Tribes on projects. And it's getting DOGEd this week.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I will not
A Google search AI error message that says “Can’t generate an AI overview right now. Try again later.”
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max koss 🦩 @maxkoss.com · 06/07/2026
The nice things about books: once you own them, you own them, forever. No one will be eye tracking your reading habits. No one will make money of you reading the book as many times as you'd like. And the very same book can be read by generations to come. It can last centuries, literally. It's great.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Between the recent heatwave and my post-surgery convalescence, I've been spending a lot of time indoors lately. Here are the #Arctic and non-Arctic books, podcasts and more that have had me dreaming of cooler climes. ❄️ (Also, subscribe for free to my monthly newsletter, Arctic Archives! 👇)
open.substack.com
Armchair Adventurer; or, The Recluse in the Recliner
Arctic and other books, shows and more that kept me entertained during my recent convalescence. Plus: new Polar Intelligence.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
You're gonna need a bigger boat* *scientific understanding of #shark anatomy 🦈
open.substack.com
“The Great Sea-Worm”: Why the Stronsay Beast Baffled Britain’s Best Scientists
When a mysterious globster washed up on a Scottish beach in 1808, some thought it was proof of a legendary Arctic monster. Plus: whaling history and more Polar Intelligence.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Echoes of Nansen’s Fram expedition!
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I think this is my best finish yet—thank you, "Medallion with the Virgin from an Icon Frame," for those 10,000 points Anthropeum.com · Jun 23 2026 🟨🟩🟦🟦🟩🟦🟨🟩🟩🟩 75,716 · top 8% of players today!
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Hey, do you live in Maryland, aka the best state in the union 🦀? @thebaltimorebanner.com and @bannermoco.bsky.social put together an amazingly thorough, easy-to-understand voters’ guide that just helped me fill out the most informed primary ballot of my life. Get your questions answered!👇
thebanner.com
Voter Guide 2026
Voters in Maryland will decide the state’s next governor and vote in congressional races as well as in local and state races, including contests for county executive, county councils, the General Asse...
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 15/06/2026
In North America's Western Great Lakes, thousands of 17th-century glass beads have been found. Introduced by European traders, they quickly reached further than the colonists themselves, emphasising Indigenous participation in emergent global trade. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
Three glass beads; one light blue, one dark blue and one white.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
setting up my group chat on bsky
“The Arctic Council,” a 19th-century group portrait of various British Arctic explorers in military uniforms sitting and standing around a table covered with expedition plans
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
In 1808, a globster washed up in the Orkney Islands. Was it the great Arctic sea-worm, described by #Greenland explorers a century earlier, in the flesh? Answering that question proved harder than Edinburgh's and London's top scientists expected. Discover why in the latest #Arctic Archives: ❄️🧪
open.substack.com
“The Great Sea-Worm”: Why the Stronsay Beast Baffled Britain’s Best Scientists
When a mysterious globster washed up on a Scottish beach in 1808, some thought it was proof of a legendary Arctic monster. Plus: whaling history and more Polar Intelligence.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
washingtonpost.com
David Hockney, renowned artist who captured fleeting moments in vivid color, dies at 88
The painter of “A Bigger Splash” and other iconic works ranked among the most influential British artists of all time.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Just mentioning that the woman on the book’s cover is Josephine Diebitsch Peary, wife of Robert E. Peary, one of the exceptionally few explorers’ wives who actually joined their husbands’ expeditions
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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Great news! 🙌https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g411k1x1zo
bbc.co.uk
RSPB buys Bass Rock after 300 years in private hands
The charity says the purchase is an important step in halting declining seabird numbers in the Firth of Forth.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Really looking forward to "The Wreck of the Mentor" by Eric Jay Dolin thanks to this review from @blairbraverman.bsky.social (also kinda funny that the NYT illustrated the review with the same cover image from Dolin's "Leviathan: The History of #Whaling in America" from 2007!) 🎁 link:
nytimes.com
A Tale of Shipwreck and Adventure on the High Seas
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
One of my top regrets during my (continuing) #Scoresby book research is that I never had a chance to visit Hull’s Maritime Museum. Must start planning my visit now!
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Dr. Thomas Ronge @thomasronge.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Melting permafrost on Svalbard. Our local guide told us this amount of melt used to occur not before mid July.
Exposed and melting permafrost on Svalbard. In the distance an armed polar bear guard keeps watch.
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Well, it’s Pride month, so let’s celebrate the 195th anniversary of the birth of Amelia Edwards, ghost story writer, poet, novelist, pioneering traveller, Egyptologist, campaigner for the preservation of ancient stuff, and someone who “formed emotional attachments almost uniquely with women” 🧵
b/w head and shoulders shot of a woman looking off to the left of the image. Her hair is drawn back and up, and tied at the back of her head. She looks thoughtful
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Dan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The oldest hominin footprints ever found are at risk of destruction, researchers warn www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... "A new investigation alleges that official organizations in Tanzania have imperiled the country's artifacts and remains at four critical human heritage sites..."
scientificamerican.com
The oldest hominin footprints ever found are at risk of destruction, researchers warn
A new investigation alleges that official organizations in Tanzania have imperiled the country's artifacts and remains at four critical human heritage sites they were supposed to protect
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This looks amazing! 🐋
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Today is the 91st anniversary of the last diary entry of the first man who tried to climb Everest solo. Mind you, his plan had been to crash land a plane 14,000 feet up and then stroll the rest of the way, so perhaps he wasn’t destined to succeed 🧵
b/w photo of Maurice Wilson standing up in the cockpit of a small old aeroplane, in front of a hangar, waving at the camera
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David Reamer @anchistorian.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
2019 "Arctic Hunters, Scoresbysund, Greenland" by photographer Ragnar Axelsson. #arctic
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
If it’s 25 May, it must be the 167th anniversary of Francis Leopold McClintock finding a skeleton in the Arctic. He was looking for an earlier explorer, Sir John Franklin, who was, by this stage, unlikely to be alive, given that he’d been missing for 14 years 🧵
Excerpt from The voyage of the ‘Fox’ in the Arctic seas: A narrative of the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions, by Francis Leopold McClintock, 1859: Shortly after midnight of the 25th May, when slowly walking along a gravel ridge near the beach, which the winds kept partially bare of snow, I came upon a human skeleton, partly exposed, with here and there a few fragments of clothing appearing through the snow. The skeleton – now perfectly bleached – was lying upon its face, the limbs and smaller bones either dissevered or gnawed away by small animals.
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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I realize I sound like old man yelling at clouds but... ...in my day WE READ ALL THE CITATIONS BEFORE WE CITED THEM. That's how you GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE TO CITE THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Signed: Someone who literally read two whole books on the color blue just to write a single 1000 word article.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 19/05/2026
At the risk of old-man-shakes-fist: When I was in j-school a million years ago, if you got any factual error wrong on an assignment — misspelled a name, didn’t get quote exactly right, said the wrong time — you got an F on the whole assignment. Harsh, but made you understand accuracy was EVERYTHING
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Currently enjoying the 1960s footage of Greenland’s Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base) in this doc
tubitv.com
Camp Century: The Cold War Beneath the Ice (2019)
The story of the United States' top-secret Project Iceworm—an attempt to build a military town beneath the Greenland ice sheet during the Cold War.
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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · 17/05/2026
An old favourite reminder that with historical handwriting, beautiful does not equal readable. James Clark Ross, everyone! (It would still totally make for a stunning silk scarf design)
A square image of a cross-written section from a letter by James Clark Ross to Edward Sabine, with the original colours changed to gold on black background to emphasise the meticulous, flowing lines.
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Bad news: El Niño is coming back to wreak weather havoc Good news: The oceans are gay
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I love how this story captures the equal ratio of artistic skill and scientific knowledge that goes into natural history dioramas. And styling a raptor with a blowdryer (🎁)
nytimes.com
At a Los Angeles Museum, Giving New Life to Dead Animals
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Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
This remarkable colour photograph of hot air balloons at the inaugural Paris Air Show was taken in 1909 by Léon Gimpel, using the Autochrome Lumière process, the first commercial process for colour photography
Large blue and white striped air balloon, inflated, inside a capacious exhibition space
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The Barents Observer @thebarentsobserver.com · 13/05/2026
Vast open territories in the Arctic have been claimed and named as though they were blank white pieces of canvas. But the Indigenous place names that existed long before these new names were invented carry history, culture, and identity. Partner story by the Fram Centre
thebarentsobserver.com
Why is it important to use Sami place names?
Vast open territories in the Arctic have been claimed and named as though they were blank white pieces of canvas. But the Indigenous place names that existed long before these new names were invented ...
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
These are charming! Esp. considering how poor Hood ended up on the 1819-1822 Coppermine expedition (not the better-known 1845 #FranklinExpedition hinted below). These paintings are a nice contrast to George Back’s more intense scenes from the journey
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Exactly 100 years ago today, legendary #ArcticExplorer Roald Amundsen and American aviator Lincoln Ellsworth took off in the airship Norge from #Svalbard and sailed over the North Pole. Ellsworth wrote,”with hats off dropped our flags—both the Norwegian and American stuck the landing.”
open.substack.com
100 Years Ago: Roald Amundsen, Richard E. Byrd, and Their Race to Fly to the North Pole
In May 1926, the Norwegian explorer and the American aviator left Spitsbergen on two different kinds of aircraft, each vying to be the first at the Pole by air. Who would win?
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
“We should be at the Pole now. Make a circle. I will take a picture.” 100 years ago #OTD, American aviator Richard Byrd wrote those words to his co-pilot as they became the first to reach the North Pole (or at least pretty close to it) by airplane, heralding a new era in Arctic exploration.
open.substack.com
100 Years Ago: Roald Amundsen, Richard E. Byrd, and Their Race to Fly to the North Pole
In May 1926, the Norwegian explorer and the American aviator left Spitsbergen on two different kinds of aircraft, each vying to be the first at the Pole by air. Who would win?
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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Because they rule duh
nytimes.com
Why Is Everyone Obsessed With Bogs?
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